


Courting Dis-Anser

by Kariachi



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe- The Soulmate Goose of Enforcement, College finals, Goose-typical violence, His Goose Cares Not, Ken Has Trauma, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21965515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kariachi/pseuds/Kariachi
Summary: Ken's been waiting all his life to encounter a soulmate goose associated with himself.Why, he's not so sure anymore.
Relationships: Argit/Kenneth "Ken" Tennyson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Courting Dis-Anser

Ken’s goose shows up a week before finals because apparently he’s not suffering enough. It’d be a handsome thing in the wild, or on a farm, solidly built with reddish-brown feathers, but given their first encounter involves teeth in his poor nose while he sleeps it is clearly a Beast From Hell.

His first instinct is of course to seek refuge from the vicious waterfowl, vaulting from his bed to the top of his dresser while it lunges for him, going off like a particularly angry foghorn.

His second instinct, as it attempts to climb the dresser due to lack of room to take off, is to say fate and his dreams of a veterinary medicine degree bedamned clearly one of them isn’t leaving this dorm alive.

His third instinct is to look back on all his knowledge of soulmate geese, trying to remember a weakness- hopefully to bludgeoning or underwear- while he scoots farther from the edge and that nasty bite.

Eventually though he remembers that they can’t be killed, that people have tried time and again in self-defense, and what exactly the appearance of the goose _means_. A realization that’s almost enough to get him to climb down off the dresser. Almost. But the goose knows where his soulmate is. He has a _soulmate_ and the goose knows where he is. The goose will lead him to him. If it doesn’t kill him on his way out the door.

In the end he’s forced to beat the goose back with a textbook while he pulls out and puts on a pair of pants, not even bothering with a shirt as he hightails it out of his room with the goose hot on his heels. Ken’s heard that some people’s geese are calm about the whole thing, that some have geese that are downright mellow, but apparently he doesn’t have that sort’ve luck. No, he gets murder in feathers. Thankfully it chills out a little when they get outside, beating it’s wings to herd him into the parking lot and to the Awesomemobile.

He wonders briefly if it counts as kidnapping if it’s a soulmate goose doing it, but he does want to meet his soulmate so obediently he opens the door for the goose, climbs in, and starts the car. It takes a little while for him to work out the goose’s directions- an ear-splitting honk for left, a nip at his hand for right- but things are going good. His hopes are high even as the bruises form.

Then the goose directs him onto the highway. Shoulders dropping, Ken immediately pulls over and turns around, trying to ignore the goose losing it’s figurative and literal shit in the passenger seat.

“I can’t leave town,” he explains desperately, “I have finals to study for!”

The goose bites him again.

~~

The week leading up to finals and his finals themselves pass in a blur of honking and pain and sleepless nights and way too much microwave popcorn to be healthy. Dylan is a godsend during the whole ordeal, just because he’s willing to loan Ken a jockstrap and help him lock his goose away so he can shower. Ken doesn’t know how he did on his finals, hopes his teachers will cut him some slack- it’s really hard to write an essay with seven pounds of perpetually-offended goose trying to drag you out of your chair- but really is mostly just happy that school is over and he can finally get to ending this whole ordeal.

~~

The goose is suspiciously quiet as he drives, breaking into a frenzy of angry honks whenever he slows down or, worse, stops the car, but otherwise giving no direction at all. It just sits in it’s spot in his passenger seat, watching the world go by out the window. Every once in a while it’ll lash out and bite his leg, but he’s pretty sure that’s just to keep him on his toes. This is also the only thing that keeps him from worrying that maybe something has gone horribly wrong. Like maybe he’s taken too long and his soulmate has died. But he figures if it’s still biting him it probably still has a reason to stick around.

Ken’s lack of worry is justified as soon as he drives into the Bellwood city limits. Immediately the goose perks up and starts directing him again, all honks and biting and Ken being fairly certain that his poor hand will never heal. It leads him through the residential areas, through the heart of the city, all the way downtown. Onto backstreets, through lots, and finally down a tunnel.

Something in his gut twists as he drives down deeper, as buildings appear and he realizes he’s been led straight into Undertown. Ken hates that that’s his initial reaction, knows that for the most part nobody here cares about him either way, but his experience with aliens outside of his sister and cousin consists of being kidnapped, of body horror, of watching what he’d been led to believe was his grandfather blowing himself up. His insurance doesn’t cover the sort’ve therapy one needs to handle that. As it stands, he’s left with a sharp nausea and the knowledge that his only form of defense is his goose, which at this rate is probably more likely to kill him than the aliens outside the car are by a fair margin.

The goose leads him to a large building, a truck depot of some kind, a few miles into the city, pitching an even worse fit than the first one when Ken nearly drives passed it. He gets the hint though and pulls up alongside the fence, letting the goose loose and quickly heading inside as it starts herding him again. At first, he thinks the absolutely massive robots inside are going to try to stop him, after all he is trespassing and who knows how valuable the items they’re stowing are, but the goose appears to keep them at bay. Before, if someone had told him a bunch of giant alien robots would part ways to let a goose through he probably would’ve laughed, but honestly this one could probably get a mountain to move to one side.

“What the fuck is that noise?” Ken turns as a short, rodent-like alien comes into view. _The_ short, rodent-like alien, if the way the goose redoubles it’s herding efforts in his direction was any indication. His fur is thin and grey, ears long and pressed against his black mane in a clear attempt to muffle the echoing Doom Honks- as Ken has spent the past two weeks calling them. Large yellow eyes keep darting between Ken and the goose as they come closer, filled with a combination of aggravation and concern.

“Uh, so,” Ken says when he’s right in front of him, avoiding eye contact by watching the goose as it stops bruising his legs and walks around to glare at them both expectantly. “I’m, uh, I’m Ken and, this is my goose.” His soulmate edges away from the waterfowl, eyes still drifting between the two of them. Thankfully he looks as nervous as Ken feels, and as surprised as he was when he woke up in pain. After what feels like an hour, but is probably closer to a minute or two, he huffs out a deep breath. Spine straightening, he turns to Ken and holds out a hand to shake.

“I’m Argit. It’s, nice to finally meet you.”


End file.
